Six new books hit local shelves this month

Residents looking for new reading material this month have six new titles available. The list includes novels, a history book, and a memoir covering topics from romance to sports.

Louise Kennedy publishes her second novel, Stations. The Northern Irish writer spent nearly 30 years as a chef before turning to fiction. She described the shift as "strangely liberating" in a 2022 interview. The book explores the lasting effects of a young love, focusing on the influence of family pasts rather than religious differences.

Mary Beth Keane releases Whale Harbor. A critic for Fresh Air previously compared her work to Ann Patchett, noting her ability to turn domestic stories into universal themes. The new novel follows an Irish father and his sons. The narrative spans multiple years, seas, and continents.

Matt O'Hara, a history professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, writes The Flying Death. The book details the history of curare, a poison used in Amazonian blowdarts. Researchers in the 1930s sought its medicinal properties. The pursuit led to new developments in pharmacology and affected the tribes who originally used the mixture.

Daisy Johnson publishes Long Wave. The British author became the youngest Booker Prize finalist ever in 2018 for her debut, Everything Under. Her new novel features spare prose and a foreboding atmosphere. The story centers on women who carry family bonds described as broken glass, mixing love and menace.

Tahmima Anam's Uprising takes place on a river island in Bangladesh. The setting is affected by climate change, with rising waters trapping women in prostitution. The narrative is told largely from the perspective of the children born on the island. The arrival of a new girl begins to shift the status quo.

Cleo Birdwell publishes Amazons: An Intimate Memoir by the First Woman Ever to Play in the National Hockey League. The author is a pseudonym for Don DeLillo. He publicly acknowledged writing the book in 2020. DeLillo agreed to a republication earlier this year, adding a preface that reads, "I don't want to talk about it."